On 15/01/10 17:37, Jacqui Caren-home wrote:
> Sean Gibbins wrote:
>> Stephen Pelc wrote:
>>> You can only improve something by acknowledging what's wrong
>>> with it.
>>
>> When dealing with free, open source software coded largely by volunteers
>> you can take it a stage further - you can get involved and fix it.
>
> Sorry but this is where it gets "flame warish". He has a binary release
> product and has a number of targets to release to and is sick of the
> amount of manual work involved.
>
> Stephen,
> I have been involved in release managemnet for longer than I care to
> admit. Although I am by no way a packaging expert I would be happy to discuss
> how I would approach automating the release process as I will probably be responsible
> for doing something similar in the near future.
>
> Jacqui
>
I recall his moan was upgrading to 9.10 broke his package scripts. Then
he added there are too many different package management systems in
Linux and it should be more like Windows.
1. If your business depends on software, never upgrade your live server
without first testing on a clone and second, back up your live server.
This is applies to all OS upgrades/patches.
2. Linux moved away from single propriety OS's like Solaris, Mac or
Windows by offering choice. 2.4 kernel, 2.6 kernel, 32 or 64 bit,
Debian, Gentoo, Red Hat package managers*. The downside of choice and
flexibility is more complex upgrades and package management if you are
covering all distros. To help solve this, Packagekit was created.
http://www.packagekit.org/pk-intro.html
There is light at the end of the tunnel but the developers don't have
M$'s billions to fund a quick solution. However, they do have a desire
to improve and are very talented developers to compensate for lack of funds.
So, if you've spent the time to automate your build creation, don't even
think about upgrading your live server without testing.
* I know Gentoo isn't packaged, but it has its own install procedures
like a package.
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